Who is the biggest name/team to never win "the big one"?

[GhostMachine]

Offhand...

The Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, and Philadelphia Eagles have lost every Super Bowl they've been in. The Bills have the misfortune of losing 4 in a row. (Hence, I refer to them as the Buffalo Bowlchokers) The Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions have never been to one, and the Browns won't be going any time soon....if ever.

Besides Marino, Warren Moon never won a Super Bowl. He did win the Grey Cup in Canada, though, but who cares?

Ken Griffey Jr, one of my all-time favorite players, never won a World Series. 

[HailtotheYo]

Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, Bruce Smith, Earl Campbell, OJ, LaDanian Tomlinson, Fran Tarkenton, Randy Moss

Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Thomas, Ernie Banks, Rod Carew, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams

Pete Maravich, George Gervin, Charles Barkley

 

 

 

[gunnar hendershow]

I feel basketball provides the longest list of great players to never win titles. Teams have small rosters and they tend to stay relatively intact year-to-year, at least the good ones. A ton of players had the misfortune of playing during the Bill Russell years, others had to play during the Bird/Magic years, a ton had the misfortune of playing during the Bulls dynasty, a ton then had the misfortune of playing during the Kobe/Duncan years, and now there's a ton of players who have to play during the LeBron/Warriors years. Outside of the 70s there's no decade where almost all its stars got rings.

The NFL has a shorter list but the names who have never won really stick out, like Marino, Bruce Smith, Deacon Jones, and Barry Sanders. Arguably 4 of the 20 greatest players ever. But the NFL always has this quick transition in good teams, especially now with the salary cap, and most of its greats have wound up getting the chance to play and win the big one.

MLB has a really long list as well, especially in the expansion era. A lot of teams wind up winning a title during an individual player's career. Since expansion started there's only been one team that either won or went to the World Series so much that they viably blocked other great teams and players from ever getting there (the Jeter/Rivera Yankees dynasty). They made 6 World Series in 8 years, winning 4 of them. A plus of baseball is that as players get older the structure of the game allows them to still contribute and do so on contending teams. Carlos Beltran this year is a great example of that. Before expansion most great players wound up being on one team that did win it all, in the midst of plenty of Yankees wins. But you still have Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, and Ernie Banks (though half his career was spent after expansion) as all-time greats to never win. More recently there's Griffey, Gwynn, and Bonds who never won a title.

I would argue of the 4 major US sports the NHL has the lowest percentage of all-time greats who never won a title. In part because the league had 6 teams for the longest time. Like baseball the nature of the sport allows situations like Ray Borque going to the Avalanche to chase a ring. You still have names like Adam Oates, Dale Hawerchuk, and especially Marcel Dionne (who basically was stuck on awful teams his entire career), as well as a slew of current and former Washington Capitals. In the next few decades this list will surely grow as the league will soon have 32 teams and it becomes less likely a great player wins a Cup. 

[Souf_Auckland]

Jonah Lomu, rugby's first and last real global superstar, never won a World Cup.

[Rocky]

13 minutes ago, Souf_Auckland said:

Jonah Lomu, rugby's first and last real global superstar, never won a World Cup.

I hadn't even realised this until you mentioned it.
1995 was the "food poisoning" incident in South Africa.
1999 was the horrible loss to France in the Semis.
2003 he had recently "retired" due to his kidney problems.
By 2007 he had been overlooked probably due to missing most of the NPC season and not picking up a contract within Super 14.

He is still by far one of the most memorable players in the game and will always be a NZ iconic legendstar.

[Souf_Auckland]

not to mention the greatest sports game on the playstation one not under the Pro Evo banner.

[Rocky]

Just now, Souf_Auckland said:

not to mention the greatest sports game on the playstation one not under the Pro Evo banner.

so many years spent on that game xD

[GhostMachine]

I've always argued that in most team sports, you can't use the # of championships won or not to determine greatness. Because you can be the greatest player to ever play a sport and still not win a championship if you're playing on a garbage team, yet can be mediocre as hell and win multiple championships because the rest of the team is great. (There are plenty of career benchwarmers with Super Bowl and World Series championships, for example.) Or, let me put it this way.....Rex Grossman made it to a Super Bowl as a starter. Thankfully, he didn't win.....

Auto racing is about the only `team' sport that I can think of where # of championships won can be thoroughly justified in determining that, but not always. I think Jimmy Johnson tied Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt so quickly in NASCAR not because he's great but because of rules changes and the level of talent being watered down for years. 

[Adam]

I understand what you're saying there GM, but ultimately most people get into their chosen sport aiming to win championships and titles. So it tracks that never winning the "big one" even in a team sport is worth noting for players like Lomu and so on. I do get your point though.

[MDK]

9 hours ago, GhostMachine said:

I've always argued that in most team sports, you can't use the # of championships won or not to determine greatness.

Maybe, maybe not. If you are judging teams or players against teams or players of a separate era then it isn't fair. Lots of people would say that George Best, Northern Irish football/soccer player, is one of the best players ever. But did he play at a World Cup? Did he bollocks. Can he be considered World Class? He never did it on the world stage, so perhaps not. Same with Hungary. Probably the best team to ever grace a football field, the magnificent Magyars, didn't win a thing. But they walloped the founders of football in their own yard.

It all depends on how you define the best. That is why athletics is brilliant. We know that Usain Bolt is the best, we know that. We know that Flo-Jo is the fastest woman. We know that we should be getting them together in some weird eugenics experiment to create the fastest person but "ethics" gets in the way.